Revisit the U-T's 1992 review of the debut album by one of GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's favorite bands -- and our 1993 interview with Tom Morello

Time flies when you're rocking out and raising a revolutionary musical ruckus. Time flies even quicker, or not, when a band is inactive for 7 years of its two-decade career.

It was 20 years ago this month that
Rage Against The Machine
released its classic, self-titled debut album. A galvanizing fusion of rap and metal, it helped propel the four-man Los Angeles band to international stardom -- and warned them such high profile fans as 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

The decision to put out this two-CD, two-DVD, one vinyl album box set, which has a retail price of almost $100, appears to have at least one inspiration beyond the original album's 20th anniversary. Namely, the fact that Rage (which disbanded in 2000 and reunited at the 2007 Coachella festival) has not put out a new studio album in 12 years and shows no signs of recording new music any time soon.

Morello confirmed as much in an interview last week with England's NME, saying: "When bands make albums it's because everybody wants to, and that's not the case with Rage Against The Machine at the moment. Everyone in the band gets along very well, we consider each other friends and comrades in arms, but people sometimes don't feel ready to do it."

To commemorate the 20th anniversary, here's our 1992 review of Rage Against The Machine's debut album. We've also included our 1993 interview with Rage guitarist Tom Morello (who is considered a fair bet to sit in on a song or two when Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform Dec. 4 in Anaheim.)

WITH BRUTE FORCE, RAGE EXPLODES ON MUSIC SCENE
(Originally published in U-T San Diego on Dec. 31, 1992)

Rage Against the Machine, "Rage Against the Machine" (Epic) * * * ½

Barely a year old, Rage Against the Machine has produced one of the most explosive debuts in recent memory -- a blistering fusion of rap, heavy metal, punk-funk, hardcore and hip-hop so intense it puts Red Hot Chili Peppers and Living Colour to shame and almost makes Ice-T's Body Count sound like the Jackson 5 in comparison.

Led by 22-year-old singer Zack de la Rocha, this four-man Los Angeles band combines a brute-force attack and surprising instrumental dexterity with suitably raging lyrics that de la Rocha spits out in take-no-prisoners, machine-gun bursts that singe and sear.

Yet, for all the incendiary anger contained in the songs "Settle For Nothing" "Bombtrack," "Killing in the Name" and the anti-Desert Storm-ing "Bullet in the Head," Rage Against the Machine does far more than blindly lash out against real and imagined demons. Indeed, for all his seething attacks on corrupt political systems and their attendant oppression of the have-not masses, de la Rocha is savvy enough to realize frustration not tempered by at least the suggestion of hope or promise ultimately rings hollow.

That's why galvanizing songs like "Wake Up" and "Take the Power Back" find the band's furious music achieving even greater potency by railing against apathy and encouraging self-empowerment, both political and spiritual, as the best means to avoid a mean and pointless end.

Using a snarled credo first expressed by Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols in 1977 -- "We
mean
it, man!" -- de la Rocha leaves no doubt his anger is real, not the contrived concoction of an armchair rebel.

His ferocity is matched by the bone-crushing riffs and howling solos of guitarist Tom Morello and the pulverizing rhythms of bassist Timmy C. and drummer Brad Wilk. (Their disciplined fury is vividly captured by engineer and co-producer Garth Richardson, whose previous credits include the Chili Peppers and metal maven Ozzy Osbourne.)

Together, they create such a torrent of
Sturm und Drang
music (tempered by surprisingly restrained passages of tender lyricism) that Epic Records has seen fit to issue the following disclaimer: "No samples, keyboards or synthesizers have been used in the making of this album; all sounds are the product of guitar, bass and drums."

The explosive power that Rage Against the Machine produces -- imagine Led Zeppelin and Public Enemy teaming up with the Bad Brains at a Jimi Hendrix memorial concert -- is clearly not for the meek of heart or sensitive of hearing. Nor are de la Rocha's sometimes profane lyrics, which are frightening not because of his liberal use of the f-word -- which is used 16 times alone during the take-no-prisoners "Killing in the Name" -- but because of the unmistakable fury that fuels them.

The result is a remarkably potent album by a band that sounds accomplished well beyond the tender years of its members. And if this self-titled debut doesn't make Rage Against the Machine huge, well, it's only a matter of time.

HARVARD GRAD PUTS KNOWLEDGE TO PRACTICAL RAP-METAL USE
(Originally published in U-T San Diego on April 16, 1993)

As a Nigerian-American graduate of Harvard University who plays guitar in the rap-metal band Rage Against The Machine, Tom Morello has grown used to being the odd man out.

"The biggest obstacle now is a certain amount of alienation and resentment from other musicians," said Morello, 28, who performs tonight with his fiercely raging band at Iguanas in Tijuana. "There's a general disbelief," he continued.

" `You went to Harvard? What are you doing playing in a rock band?' People in underground rock bands are not used to that. We'll be talking about something and I'll bring up Karl Marx's Das Kapital, and there will be a . . . weird feeling."

Morello, a social studies major who wrote his senior thesis on student protest in South Africa, found that similar stereotyping prevailed in the halls of academia.

"It was the same way at Harvard when I was an aspiring rock musician," he recalled, speaking from a concert stop in Salt Lake City. "Everyone else was going to be an investment banker or lawyer or doctor, and here I was jamming along with my Ramones' records!"

Yet, while he may be the only recent Harvard grad to be found in any metal or hip-hop act, Morello is right at home in Rage Against The Machine, the fast-rising Los Angeles quartet that thinks as hard as it rocks.

The band, which also features rapper-singer Zack de la Rocha, bassist Timmy C. and onetime Pearl Jam drummer Brad Wilk, will be one of the featured artists on this year's Lollapalooza festival tour. The tour, which begins June 18 in Vancouver, will also feature Arrested Development, Alice In Chains, Fishbone, Primus, Mutabaruka and several others. (Most of the tour dates remain unannounced.)

Morello regards the tour as an ideal vehicle for Rage Against The Machine to take its message to a large, new audience that may not yet be familiar with such galvanizing Rage songs as "Take The Power Back," "Wake Up" and "Township Rebellion." And he hopes that listeners will respond to the band's outspokenly anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-materialistic messages with the same earnestness with which they are delivered.

"The people in this band are really intelligent and issue-oriented, and it's a band with a purpose," he said of his fellow Machine-mates. "The emphasis on confrontation and protest I studied at Harvard can be put to practical use by motivating the people who come to our shows.

Dedicated musical revolutionaries whose self-titled debut album mixes rap, rock, hip-hop and punk into an explosive whole, Rage Against The Machine is devoted to political and cultural empowerment and breaking down stereotypes. But the band is willing to make a few compromises, at least when it comes to getting its fiery music heard.

"We had huge misgivings when we were approached by major labels, and we had contracts (offered) after our second show," the guitarist said. "A lot of people were interested for the wrong reasons -- they saw dollar signs. Epic (which released the band's self-titled debut album in November) understood where we were coming from, philosophically, and gave us the freedom to make the album independently.

"But, since we want to reach a lot of people with a message, Epic's distribution lets us do that (everywhere from) Illinois to Prague."

And what is that message?

“An important first step is to knock people out of the complacency that the consumer system engenders," he replied.

"We're encouraged by the media and Madison Avenue to be complacent cogs. We want to wake people up to the gross crimes and injustices in our society, and to the fact that our government helps perpetuate these injustices.

"On this tour we're disseminating a lot of information, for example, about: the (controversial American Indian Movement leader) Leonard Peltier; Parents for Rock & Rap, which is a counter-group to the Parents Music Resource Center; and pamphlets to combat disinformation propagated by the media about Somalia, the gulf war, Martin Luther King . . . . All of this stuff comes together from the four of us talking."

Morello's revolutionary zeal recalls the late 1960s heyday of the MC5, the riotous Detroit rock band that was strongly allied with various radical causes.

Then as now, what makes both bands notable is that their respective messages are matched by the power of their take-no-prisoners music, and that their urban rage is tempered by their brash virtuosity. And, just as MC5 told listeners that if they were not part of the solution, they were part of the problem, Rage Against The Machine retains an optimism that increased vigilance and awareness can help young Americans devise problems to the many grave problems they now face.

"It's not necessary to have the streets named in your utopia, if you know what I mean," said Morello. "You can learn to rebel through the process of rebellion. Between the four of us we have some specific answers, but even if you don't have the ultimate end goal in sight, that's no reason not to tackle issues, such as censorship."

The issue of censorship has already had an impact on Rage Against The Machine. Because it carries a parental warning sticker, the band's formidable debut album is not carried by some record store chains in various states. And its first single, "Killing In The Name," only began receiving radio airplay on top Los Angeles radio station KROQ after a repeated four-letter profanity was edited out.

In an irony that the late Lenny Bruce would surely have appreciated, the station edited out the offending word without consulting the band ("We would never intentionally change our lyrics," said Morello.) Now, Rage Against The Machine is attracting more radio listeners as a result of KROQ's action, while simultaneously being attacked by some fans who mistakenly believe the band is responsible for "Killing In The Name's" new, sanitized treatment.

"In some communities a 17-year-old can't buy our album because it's stickered. Or it's behind the counter like it was Hustler magazine," noted Morello.

"The more subtle effect of censorship is, if you can't get your art to people, then next time you record you say, 'Maybe we shouldn't take such a threatening posture toward the current administration,' or 'Maybe we shouldn't say f---when it feels right.'

"My main contention with those who would censor is, if they really had the interests of youth in mind, they'd look to the real problems, whether it's AIDS or homelessness or parental neglect -- which are hugely debilitating -- as opposed to record lyrics. It's a sad fact that kids have more to fear from abusive parents than a record by (gangsta rappers) NWA. Censorship against music is a real buffer against parents taking responsibility."